Throughout history, monarchs were almost always held in enormous reverence. Through the principle of the divine right of kings, rulers were said to hold office by the will of God. Leaders such as Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Mao, Ceausescu, Saddam Hussein, Kim Il-sung, Mobuto Seseko, Idi Amin, and even South Africa's former homeland leaders can be associated with this undemocratic and unpopular practice.
During the peak of their regimes, these leaders were presented as god-like, heroic, supreme, infallible, incredible, untouchable and irreplaceable. You could be killed for daring to call them by their names. Their image portraits were hung in homes, public buildings, along freeways and public places.
The resurgence of democracy has made it increasingly difficult for monarchs and dictators to preserve this prestige, aura and status. More recently, we citizens are being led into the similar witless stupidity of obedience by the cult of personality. It seduces and confronts us from billboards, TV, movies, radio, photography, paintings, sound recording, film production, media and public relations - indeed all forms of mass communication so expertly manipulated by marketing and communications machineries of the age of personality.
These attention-seeking practices in the form of advertisements and advertorials have become another wasteful expenditure which serves no purpose other than exciting politicians' egos.
When addressing a shop-steward council recently, Cosatu's Zwelinzima Vavi warned that it is dangerous to emblazon the images of democratically elected leaders on T-shirts because this creates an overly powerful leader elevated above the party's leadership and membership, as well as the country and citizens. "There is danger to these t-shirts; to these posters... the negative side is that it implies in the mind of an individual that he is equal to or bigger than the organization," he said.
I personally think that democratically elected leaders should resume the responsibility of being the brand faces of their organisations. Whether it is ANC's Jacob Zuma, Democratic Party's Barak Obama, Azapo's Mangena, DA's Zille, and others, their faces should be brand identities of their political organisations, particularly during election periods. The fact is that democratically elected leaders are supposed to be the faces of their organisation's marketing, branding, and communication campaigns.
However, political parties should make sure that internal democracy is implemented, protected and respected. No one leader should be made head, heart, and hand of the organisation. No one leader should be irreplaceable and invincible. No one leader should be allowed to lead third-to-life terms.
The danger of long term leaders is that, no matter how healthy or vigorous the internal workings of that organisation, the identity and branding of the party will be almost completely absorbed into the identity and personality of its leader. In all democracies, leaders should be loyal members and servants of their organisations; therefore, they should remain subjects of their organisations.
South Africans, particularly the ANC, need to be aware of this disease and demon. Who knows, maybe the much-talked-about ANC split is a result of the cult of personality?
